Brasília - A Brazilian government mission composed of 26 diplomats and technical experts will be in Haiti until Sunday (29) to identify areas in which Brazil can contribute to resolving that country's social and political crisis. Among the projects under consideration, the outstanding candidates are the war on Aids, vaccination campaigns, family farming, the establishment of a structure of Civil Defense, training of the judiciary, and organization of presidential elections.

The areas of cooperation will be selected in consonance with Brazilian experiences in other developing countries. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa), for example, operates in various countries, disseminating techniques for the cultivation and processing of agricultural products. "Embrapa has state-of-the-art knowledge and uses streamlined techniques," explained Mário Saade, General Coordinator of Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Relations and head of the Brazilian delegation in Haiti.

After a series of meetings with representatives of the Haitian provisional government, Saade said that the Haitian government expressed interest in ways to process cashew nuts, manioc, and sugar cane.

The most significant help, withal, is expected to be in the organization of elections in the country, which experienced a political crisis after the fall of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The UN resolution that authorized the peace mission to Haiti also determines that elections be held next year.

Haiti, however, does not possess a reliable voter roll. Most people don't even have ID cards. "A large part of the population has no document of identification. Moreover, the illiteracy rate is very high," Saade observed. Brazil sent an expert from the Federal Electoral Court to accompany the work group formed by the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS).

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Aloisio Milani and Christiane Peres
Translator: David Silberstein
08/27/2004